Red yeast rice mitigates high-fat diet induced-obesity related vascular dysfunction in wistar albino rats

The red yeast rice methanolic extract (RYR) was suggested to have promising therapeutic effects against vascular endothelial dysfunction. In the present study, the protective effects of RYR at 200 and 400 mg/kg/day were investigated in a specific animal model that exhibits a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced dyslipidemia and vascular endothelium dysfunction. Vascular endothelial reactivity experiments were evaluated using aorta obtained from adult rats in an ex-vivo organ bath setup. Three consecutive weeks of RYR treatment exhibited a significant reduction in body weight (BW), liver weight (LW), and retroperitoneal fat pad weight (RFPW)/BW ratios as compared to HFD only treated rats where a significant body weight gain was observed. RYR treatment also significantly decreased the average daily food intake, waist, lee index, and body mass index compared to rats treated with HFD only. RYR treatment significantly reduced total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein, and very-low-density lipoprotein levels compared to the HFD group. HFD-induced endothelium dysfunction in the aorta of animals was reversed by RYR treatment, comparable to the HFD group. RYR treatment, specifically at 400 mg/kg/day dose, revealed a significant protective effect on vascular endothelium and an improvement in the lipid panel, hence justifying therapeutic involvement of RYR in dyslipidemia and endothelial dysfunctions.